Meditation is a great stress reliever. Have a blast with it, and consider walking meditation along with seated meditation. As with most of us, we tend to lean towards the seated meditation but mixing it up with walking meditation helps to keep balance. There's a good article called "A Guide to Walking Meditation" on SP (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp?id=894). Check it out and enjoy!

Pick a place, pick a time and focus on breathing. Close your eyes. Start thinking of a peaceful place, no stress, no worries, no negativity just you in pure peace. Imagine yourself happy, healthy and loving life.

Some people do this with music, some do it in pure silence it's up to you. Of course there are other variations to meditating but what's important is getting your body to a relax state of mind. Hope this helps.

I find that for me, there are a couple of options that work for me. A short prayer that I repeat is a good place for me to start out . . . letting the words gradually fade away as I start to relax. Another option is some quiet, instrumental music - especially some of the "new age" types and just taking deep breaths while I slip into my meditation.

Some find words interfere and use nonsense syllables or just a single sound or hum works best. Picking a single word also can work - peace, serenity, quiet, love, etc. are some choices that I have used or know people have used.

If you are not particularly religious, there are also specific meditation rituals that people use and even pay a lot of money to learn. I dated a man who taught TM (Transcendental Meditation) and who got paid several hundred dollars way back in the 1970s and he taught me the techniques. I found that my faith sometimes interfered with the specific words and/or rituals but I tweaked them to suit ME, using religious chants and music instead of the specific sounds he gave me to use.

Another activity (or maybe NONactivity) that can help with relaxation is to simply lie in a quiet, darkened room and take deep breaths, then say and deliberately relax first your feet, starting with your toes - tighten them up and then relax then, then move through your body, tightening the muscles in your toes, feet, legs, torso, fingers, hands, arms, neck, and then finally your face and head. Try to isolate each muscle or group of muscles when you tighten them up and relax them. At the end, you may feel like your body is asleep although YOU are not sleeping. You wake yourself back up slowly in much the same way.

Thanks for asking because I have successfully used meditation in the past but gradually slip out of it and then FORGET to "practice what I preach" so to speak.